[Ads-l] Antedating of "Whodunit"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Here are some citations tracing the hyphenated phrase "who-done-it"
applied to works of fiction. A linguist would know whether any of
these are useful as bracketed citations or alternative spellings.

Date: May 1924
Periodical: Classic: Pictorial of Screen and Stage
Article: Current Stage Plays
Quote Page 95, Column 2
Publisher: Brewster Publications Inc., Jamaica, New York
Database: Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/motionpicturecla00brew/page/n704/mode/1up?q=%22who+done%22

[End excerpt]
Vanderbilt. — "In the Next Room." Mrs. August Belmont offers a
thrilling melodrama which centers about the mysterious murder of two
men in the "next room." What Percy Hammond refers to as the
"Who-done-it? drama." Better than the best of this breed.
[End excerpt]

Date: April 22, 1925
Newspaper: Chicago Daily Tribune
Newspaper Location: Chicago, Illinois
Article: Theater
Quote Page 25, Column 6
Database: Newspapers.com
https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-guess/203139931/

[Begin excerpt]
"The Gorilla," which has had a try-out, is to be done next week in
New-York by Frederick Truesdell, Stephen Maley, Miss Betty Weston, and
Frank McCormack. . . . It is said to be the ultimate effort in the way
of guess-who-done-it plays.
[End excerpt]

Date: March 14, 1928
Newspaper: Chicago Daily Tribune
Newspaper Location: Chicago, Illinois
Article: Theater
Quote Page 33, Column 6
Database: Newspapers.com
https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-who/203140064/

[Begin excerpt]
"Cock Robin," a comic variant by Philip Barry of the who-done-it
plays, will be through in New York at the end of the week. . . .
Meanwhile, that author's "Paris-Bound" checks up as among the sound
successes there.
[End excerpt]

In the citation below the phrase is not hyphenated. It might be the
name of a play.

Date: July 28, 1928
Newspaper: The San Francisco Call Bulletin
Newspaper Location: San Francisco, California
Article: Guide to Showland
Quote Page 9, Column 1
Database: Newspapers.com
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-call-bulletin-done/203144481/

[Begin excerpt]
VAUDEVILLE
ORPHEUM-Pearl Regay, dancer; Jane Green,- "Siren of Syncopation,"
assisted by Adolpho Giron and Moret Freeman, Paul Morton and Miss
Billie Stout In "Hey, Taxi!" David Hartman and Frances Nordstrom in
"Who Done It?" mystery play satire; Ruth Warren and company in comedy
skit; photoplay, "The Masked Angel," starring Betty Compson.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Tue, Aug 4, 2026 at 10:47 PM Ben Zimmer
<00001aae0710f4b7-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> I see Bonnie Taylor-Blake clipped this one already:
>
> ---
> Chicago Tribune, Apr. 8, 1926, p. III1, col. 6, "Theater"
> "The Last Warning," a who-done-it piece shown three years ago in the
> Blackstone, is to be restored to view Sunday night in the Central.
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-who-done-it-4826/152397336/
> ---
>
> --bgz
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 4, 2026 at 7:18 PM Shapiro, Fred <
> 00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> > whodunit (OED 1930)
> >
> > 1929 Illinois State Journal 17 Oct. 11/3 (Newspapers.com)
> >
> > "The Unholy Night," proceeds first and fascinatingly to a smashing climax,
> > dealing out laughter and goose-flesh as it moves on its mysterious way.
> > You'll agree with me, I'm sure, in thinking it one of the best "whodunit"
> > films ever produced.
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org